Hannah in the Prairie Dog Village
by Sandra Dodd and Holly, her lovely assistant
September 21, 2006

The last time Hannah visited us in Albuquerque, we went to see the prairie dogs at Indian School and Tramway, a few miles from our house. That time, Hannah was too big to fit down the holes. It was spring and the prairie dogs were scrawny and hungry.

Hannah Lea Jenner left this life peacefully, in her mother's arms,
early on February 24, 2006. She was 9.5 years old and had a smile
on her face, as she so often did. Chemotherapy had just begun for
her recently diagnosed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, but
infection too quickly claimed her body. Hannah was a life long
learner for whom all experiences came with joy and love. Survivors,
grateful for having loved her, are her mother, Diana (Lambert)
Jenner; her brother, Hayden Jenner; her grandparents, aunts, uncles,
cousins, and countless friends-who-should-be-family. She is embraced
on the other side by her father, Mitch Jenner, and others who have
gone before her. In lieu of flowers, the family requests outpourings
of love and tender regard to every child, and gratitude on the part
of parents of living children everywhere.

On September 21, 2006, Holly and I took the Hannah remains with which we had been entrusted, put them in a little mixing bowl, and stirred in salt. We cut wedges of watermelon and dipped each in.

We drove in the same van Hannah had ridden in, to the same prairie dog village.

One of the first holes we saw had a great shade of its own. Very comfortable looking.

Holly noted that it's getting cold and the prairie dogs are about to hibernate, so they were pudgy and slow, compared to the springtime visit Hannah had last time. But they did eat the watermelon. Now Hannah can go down in the tunnels, and see through prairie dog eyes, and sleep peacefully all winter.

Here's a little movie so that you can see the prairie dogs move and hear what they sound like.

Holly is operating the camera, and the images are low quality, but the sound of prairie dogs is good.

The whooshing sound is of nearby cars, and an airplane. The voices (we meant not to speak) are me saying "Right in front of you" and Holly saying "Yeah."

Sorry it looks like the ground is moving. It really wasn't. Just the prairie dogs.

The part with the trees, where Hannah's sitting in the photos way above, was just behind us at the movie moment. They live all around under the trees and up on the flats too. The prairie dog town is along a bike trail on the east side of Albuquerque.

Some other places Hannah's have gone are shown above, and by clicking the title you can go to the blog and comment if you want to. Additional Hannah-homes (with links to where I found the information):BUT WAIT! Diana made a blog later which might have all of these and also has more: http://hannahsashes.blogspot.com/

Behind Holly are the miniature golf courses at Hinkle Family Fun, which has the arcade with the drum game some of the Live and Learn kids went to play during the conference a couple of weeks ago, so if you were one of those kids, you were right near the prairie dogs, but they were asleep.